Paint and Cabinets Going In

 Hi, everyone. We're in the final stretches - well, another 1.5-2 months... but progress is being made left and right. The trim guy finished up and we were left with these beautiful railings, check out the wood detail on the sides of the steps-

Here are our wood stairs. Recall, Zack had the architect add one more stair so that these wouldn't be as steep as originally proposed. They look and feel great.

 Here's a quick view of what the vents downstairs look like in the rooms with wood floor.

 Better view of the single twist, double twist railings and the wood trim details.

 Here is the sweater box that is behind the master closet door.

 My side of the closet. I get half a wall of single railing and half a wall of double. Zack gets a wall of double hanging rods.

 View from the screened porch door, looking through the eating area into the dining room.

 Zack and I went back to Rugworks, the flooring store, to select our kitchen back splash now that we had chosen our granite slab. Of the infinite options... here's what we went with. The back splash will be tumbled stone 4x4 squares, set at a diagonal. There will be accent inserts of the tiny tiles on the left (each insert will be a 4 tiny tile by 4 tiny tile square scattered throughout. Our granite is on the bottom. The long "stick" is going to be a border that goes around a big square/rectangle of the tiny tiles behind the stove. The tiles on the right were some shiny options that Z didn't care for. (I loved them!)

 Closer look at the accent tiles.

 Painting sure makes a world of difference in the feel of our home! Here is the bench that you see as you step in from the garage.

 Here's the "staghorn" color throughout the house. Z/Isaac are standing in the foyer and I'm in the dining room.

 Mara highly approved of the rhapsody lilac color!

 AKA purple.

 Love the blue that the boys chose for Isaac's room! Quite bold, but beautiful, imho.

 Our hallway built-in shelves, trimmed and painted.

 Here's a shot of the kitchen painted.

 A big chunk of the front yard (and road buffer) had to be taken out to accommodate the septic. The builder is concerned that the septic approvals and inspections will not come through in time. We shall see and keep our fingers crossed.

 Even the garage gets painted. How nice.

 BAM!

 That would be our cream colored cabinets with chocolate glazing, and my wonderful darker island. The bottom cabinets on the far wall all have pull out shelves, and we got a lazy susan in the corner.

 Better view of the rich coloring of the cabinets. The far right cabinet on the island is a pull out set of trash cans. We are still missing all of our handles/pulls since they weren't finished installing everything yet.

 It was already like 6:45/7:00 by the time we got to the house Wednesday night... so the lighting was pretty poor in the areas not close to windows. Here is a dark shot of the butlers pantry. There will be glass in the upper doors (no bubbles in the glass, we didn't like that look).

 All the hallway bathrooms were finished and had the marble counters/sinks in... pictures to come soon. Here's the master bathroom so you can see the dark espresso finish of these cabinets (darker than the kitchen island color).

 View of the finished paneling/chair rail/paint in the dining room in the late evening (no lights).

 Front view of the house from part of the clearing.

 We always have to take a walk to view whatever machinery is on the property. This big dump truck gets Isaac's heart a-racing. It's carrying away trees from the clearing.

 And I had to throw in a picture of my handsome men at the company softball game from last night. Love them.

Tile floors/tubs should have been started yesterday and the cabinets should be finished. Granite comes in next week. We chose our kitchen sink (single large bowl with square edges on the granite) and faucet (This one, but cheaper from Lowes). We are going to finish up our lighting/fan selections, then start on the small accessories (TP holders, towel bars). We're nearing the finish line, with the exception of the septic. I'll try to post some more pics soon of the finished bathroom cabinets/counters. :)

Still alive and married

Alright, people, please bear with me through another large post. I have actually whittled down the photos to show you... I believe we left off framed and windowed?

We chose a deep soaker tub for the master bathroom... as I am not really a jacuzzi/air bath type gal. And for the extra 1200 bucks it would take to get me there, I just wasn't feeling it. So hello plain old simple soaker tub.

 Siding and shakes were installed relatively quickly.

 Interior tub, and you can see the recessed light we added above the tub (in addition to the vanity lights).

 All the electrical and plumbing were going in.

 Back of the house with the siding going up. Screened in porch is still semi-roughed in.

 Big shot of the back siding, unpainted.

 Choosing the exterior colors proved to be the biggest challenge we faced so far. Long story, long weekend short... we went with a deep grey wonderfully titled "Anonymous". We chose to paint the siding and shakes the same color as opposed to a few shades difference. The trim is "Pearly White" I believe.

 Lots of wires, breaker boxes in the garage/backing up into the laundry room.

 The electricians must be perfectionists. Check out the wiring.

 Soaker tub... soaking.

 Vanity light wiring with some slack.

 Exterior shot again, with the crawlspace door attached. Custom made fiberglass door.

 Sometimes it's pretty muddy when we visit. This is me showing the kids the art of removing caked on mud with a stick.

 Our lovely Saturday adventure where we missed the driveway by only a fraction of a hair of an inch... and subsequently had to phone in a rescue.

 Gross, right? We now have a come-along and tow straps in the trunk of the Acadia.

 Our rescuers!

Hanging out with Claire/Travis while they packed for their big move to Boston.

 Isaac was tickled pink to actually SIT on the motorcycle.

 And of course, sister had to join in on the fun.

 

 More siding up and painted! Roof on! (Color is called "Weathered Wood" in case you were curious...)

 Drywall was delivered and placed all throughout the house. We sensed a big change coming!

 Our screened in porch got some railings!

 View from the eating area, looking into the living room/stairs.

 Nice deep tub. Mara's standing in our shower, leaning on the bench part.

 View out Mara's window, with the roof on.

 So, don't worry about the part the painters missed. Apparently, they come back multiple times for touch ups and that strip will match the rest of the house at some point in the near future.

 View of the back of the house with the porch railings. We don't have the stairs yet.

 Yay! Stairs!

 I now no longer fear the kids tumbling off the sky high porch.

 Entertaining ourselves with some block building. And nose picking I think.

 We went to our first family baseball game one Sunday afternoon (Durham Bulls)

 It was hot... but we enjoyed the time with our friends. That's Max to the right (he's 3.5 years) and Elam (Isaac's age) on the far right.

 My little family (and Elam, Derica, Case, and Ashley and Max in view).

 We trekked across the stadium so Mara could meet this thing. It's a character from a show that we don't watch... so we just called it the monster.

 We now have insulation. Zack added extra insulation throughout the house. He had the garage insulated, any interior bedroom walls that touched the living room walls (so Mara's whole room is insulated, as well as the main Master bedroom wall), we added insulation to any bathroom walls that touched a bedroom wall... and I think t hat's it. Here's the garage.

 The first time we walked into the house, it felt like you needed to pop your ears. Everything was so muffled!

 They even batted the ceiling! Z - tell me if I'm using the wrong language...

 View from the kitchen into the eating area and living room.

 Master bedroom (you can tell by the tray ceiling)

 Check out what a fancy job the porch guy did. He rounded this corner.

 I think this was a choo choo train day.

 Drywall being hung (garage)

 Loft.

 Downstairs hallway/guest room.

 Standing in the guestroom looking into the hallway.

 What a mess. We do have to watch where we put our feet.

 Master bath, looking into the closet.

 Next big choices were flooring! Z and I took a few hours during the workday to meet with a really nice flooring/tile guy. Lots of selection...

 We are getting 3/4 inch oak wood floor. Here are the color choices.

 Carpet - we knew the apartment carpet color has been handling our dirt/dog hair perfectly... so we were aiming for somewhere in that color. We had flecked carpet or sorta flecked or no fleck... what the fleck! The swatch is the apartment carpet.

 We ended up choosing this one, which is browner than it looks in this picture. And we chose the wood color on the top left. The bottom color is "natural" which is what our last house had and didn't hide dirt at all. I hope this slightly darker color gives me a few more days between sweeping/vacuuming?

 Better lighting of our carpet and floor selection.

 Okay, so this is the color tile we chose for the laundry room. It will be laid square, like you see it (although I didn't rotate the pic. Sorry). And it will have a darker grout.

 Here's the tile and grout for the laundry room.

 This is the master bathroom tile for floor, shower and tub, below. It will be 12x12 squares, though, except for the accenting tiles that are those strips of colored small squares you see below the big tile. We're getting those colored tiles around the tub, around the upper/mid section of the shower, and on the shower floor. We also chose to have corner ceramic shelves rather than the indented tile nooks (cost difference of like 90 bucks each). Master shower is getting 3, the other bathrooms are getting 2. Tiles will be square on the floor, tub, lower shower... then they will be diagonal above the colored tiles in the shower.

 These big tiles below will be the other two bathroom floors and showers. Ignore the top tile design.

 What the upstairs transition from hallway to bathroom tile will look like. Tiles will be square (not diagonal)

 Whew, ok, still with me??

We also get these bad boys.

Flush wood floor vents that will match the stain of our floors. How awesome are these?

 We have not chosen our kitchen tile back splash yet since we had not selected our granite counters, but we are likely going this route - tumbled stone. Isn't it pretty? Just without the metal inserts... and I don't like that green brick area. Oh, those are the corner ceramic shelves there on the counter.

 Took another trip to the beach. Thought you'd like to see a bit of the fun and destruction? Here's the decushioning that occurred multiple times a day... in order to pad the floor for jumping.

 Isaac getting some Cherry love and reassurance.

 Still a mighty fine specimen in his old age.

Yes, I'm talking about both of them.

 A few moments of me starting dinner prep... and the artist struck on unconventional canvas. Mr. Isaac got a nice talking to, and he helped me scrub the ink off. Hopefully, lesson learned.

 The kids both enjoyed playing games on Cherry's iPad. There was a tractor game for this dude.

 My loves, playing in one of the tide pools

 Isaac was a brave man and actually let the waves touch him.

 Returning "home" we got to see the drywall finished and the floors starting to go in!

 We now had ceilings on the porches (to be painted white. Although we could have stained them).

 Wood floor being installed.

 Dining room laid out.

 View of the drywall of the downstairs bedroom.

 Screened in porch with ceiling, no screens yet.

 All set for trim guy. We had to choose what door designs we wanted for the interior doors. We went with the traditional 6 panel.

 Left is the little door to the attic space through Mara's closet. Then those are stairs in the middle.

 Eating area and kitchen floors being laid out.

 Mara's drywalled room.

 Loft.

 The floors are not stained yet.

 We had to return to the house later that afternoon to meet the builder and walk through trim options/choices and closet layouts. So here's the wood floor a little further along.

 Front view of the house (not from the road).

 Next stop, granite counter tops! We got to walk through this huge warehouse of granite. There were SO many choices and colors. We almost leaned toward this dark color - it was our second favorite. We could get away with it b/c we have white cabinets and will do light walls.

 Here's what it looked like up close.

 This one was too light. (ignore the spray on foam)

 Close up.

 There were aisles and aisles. That's the granite guy walking us through. Each aisle had like 10 slabs of granite on each side... and I bet there were 8-10 aisles.

 I really liked this one, mostly the design. But the picture doesn't show why it's name is "Amazon Green".

 It had a rusty greenish coloring. I thought it was lovely.

 But since my other half didn't agree, we compromised and found one we both liked. This is our actual slab of granite that will adorn our kitchen and butler pantry. It's called "Gaillo Ornamental" and is apparently the most popular stone selection among home owners. Safe bet.

 Here's a close up.

 And another angle. Should go great with our white cabinets, darker wood island, and wood floor. We're also going with a beigey brown paint color and beige-brown back splash. The one thing I have learned in this process is that I'm attracted to the warmer colors, not the cool blues/greys I thought I'd like.

 Trim going in! Standing in the dining room looking into the foyer.

 Standing in dining room, looking at the back door to the screened in porch. I don't think I've shown this angle before... the butler pantry is on the right side, the left side is to the hallway with the laundry room/bench/closet/garage.

 Kitchen, with the boys looking into the pantry.

 Master bedroom. Door frame is to the bathroom. Base boards not yet installed down here.

 Downstairs linen closet. We asked for another shelf to be added at the top.

 Downstairs bedroom closet.

 Isaac inspecting the floor transition from hallway to downstairs bedroom. Zack's at the linen closet, and the door that is open in the hallway is to the coat closet.

 Upstairs linen closet.

 Shelves are not yet installed on the right.

 Mara's room (with baseboard and window jams!)

 Mara's closet. It was too dark for me to get a shot of behind her door, but the little attic door was hung.

 Isaac's closet.

 View from Isaac's room into the hallway.

 Attic door in Isaac's room.

 Transition into Master bedroom (will be carpet)

 Foyer hallway.

 Dining room.

 Pantry, without its jam.

 We are having to clear about the same size (3/4 of an acre) in our front yard to accommodate the septic system. It's a little disappointing b/c that cuts into our buffer from the road (both view and sound). But looking from the front porch, here's what you see. They aren't completely finished clearing yet... but I think we will still be okay.

 Walking down the driveway, here's what you see.

 View from the front of the clearing. See the house in the background? I'm still like 60 feet or more off the road... there's another layer of trees behind me between our septic clearing and the road.

 Isaac being enthralled.

 Z said you know you're southern when you have one cup in your tractor labeled "coke" and one labeled "spit". Awesome.

 We spotted a rainbow (Mara's second ever, she told me) driving home (well, to the apartment)

 Isaac loves playing dress up. We need to get some more dress up clothes so he has some boyish options if he wants them. Although he does like to twirl in this.

 Next visit, we had stairs going in! We were instructed by the trim guy "Chris" not to walk on them for 24 hours or we'd squish the glue and the stairs would then creak. We kept away from them.

 Max, Mara and Isaac coloring at Matt/Jess' baby shower.

 I took a picture of a few things hanging outside Mara's classroom.

 And caught my son playing dress up in his classroom. And I know he has access to lots of clothing options here, so I think he prefers sparkles and tutus.

 And finally, just showing the extent of his determination. This is to turn on the cold water, to fill a cup, to take a sip from, and then dump it in the sink.

And yes, the second I snapped this photo, the toilet paper roll gave way and I caught him with my one arm before he got stabbed by the toilet paper roll metal arms, or chin jammed by the counter, or body splatted on the gorgeous faux-wood linoleum.

All in a day's work, people.

This evening, we selected our interior paint colors. If you're interested:
Main interior color - Duron  Staghorn
Mara's room - Sherwin Williams Rhapsody Lilac
Isaac's room - Sherwin Williams Pulsating Blue

Mara really wanted a pink and purple room, and I think the last room (as much as I loved the color) was just too dark. I found that out after having to prime it to paint it neutral. So we're going with a lighter color, and I told her we could choose some very purple or very pink items to go in her room, like a blanket or pillow. And Zack asked Isaac if he wanted his room painted and what color he wanted it, and he told him BOO. So... blue it is.

I bet you're exhausted from reading this - I'm a little tired myself. We'll keep you posted, but we should continue to see lots of progress. Trim guy should finish this week, painters are supposed to start tomorrow or Wednesday. Cabinets being delivered September 22nd. Septic and well going in as soon as the spots are cleared. We are pretty certain in our lighting selections (fans, lights throughout the interior and exterior, pendants, under cabinet lighting). We will have to choose the odds and ends (towel bars, TP holders, etc. towards the very end). Sometime between Oct 30th and Nov 15th we should be outta this apartment and in our new home!